3/15/2004 @ 12:00AM

Breaking the Mold

Women executives are about as common in the Persian Gulf as alpine lakes. Which makes petite, striking Lubna Al-Qasimi–dressed head-to-toe in a black burka–all the more conspicuous. As chief executive of Tejari, an online procurement service, Lubna regularly hobnobs with higher-ups at customers like HSBC, Emirates Airlines and officials of Dubai’s government. She also has official duties as princess–or sheikha–and niece of the ruler of neighboring Sharjah (“It’s mostly just posing for photos,” she says with a dismissive giggle).

Business is serious. Before getting her M.B.A. on weekends at the American University of Sharjah, Lubna grabbed the attention of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum by developing a customized manifest documentation system while working at the Dubai Port Authority. The technology reduced cargo turnaround from one hour to ten minutes. It later inspired an online marketplace supporting purchase orders for companies in Dubai’s free-trade zones. Why couldn’t the same open-bidding efficiencies be brought to the public sector? Thus Tejari (“commerce,” in Arabic) was born in 2000, with an estimated $20 million in seed financing, mostly from Mohammed. It wasn’t throwaway money: Today some 70% of Dubai’s government purchases are made online, while only 30% of bureaucrats were Web-literate when Tejari was launched. Lubna claims her company broke even last year. Tejari now runs franchises in Jordan,Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.

All the more impressive, considering that a proposed federal family law in the United Arab Emirates does not guarantee the rights of married women to find employment. In fact, part of the draft law reportedly allows a husband to prevent his wife from working, even if she has a prenuptial agreement allowing her to get a job. “I know I’m a role model,” says Lubna, who has spent time in the States and the U.K. “Now we have to show the world what we can do.”